Real Time with Bill Maher - Overtime - Episode #460: Polarized Politics, Border Control and Leaders in Environmentalism

Episode Date: May 12, 2018

Bill and his guests – Rep. Duncan Hunter, Ethan Hawke, Robert Reich, and Michael Render (aka Killer Mike) answer viewer questions after the show. (Originally aired 05/11/18) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to an HBO podcast from the HBO late-night series, Real Time with Bill Maugh. Okay. Ethan Hawk, the greatest generation has given society so much. Has Hollywood seen its own greatest generation yet? What you mean? I don't know what that means either.

Yeah. The greatest, like, no, never mind. Duncan Hunter, we know the Democrats are guilty of identity politics. What responsibility should the left take for why politics are so polarized today? I think when we found out So Democrats had control of Congress for like 50 years and 94 Newt Gingrich entered that I think once everybody figured out that anybody could win any election

that's what created the massive polarity that we have now where you have two different sides and either side can win any election, right? Well, anybody can but you must admit that the Republicans cheat more. No, I don't have to admit that. Really? No way. Voter suppression? Oh, come on. You don't think there's voter suppression in America?

How about in California with illegal immigrants? immigrants being registered to vote and then voted. But that has been studied and it's not true. It is true. Well, Trump says there were three million illegal votes. I don't think he has his number's right, but I think that it's a high number. It's a high number? It's a lower number. It's not that high.

Is it up to a million? I don't know. I don't know the number. We don't know the number, but we know it's a problem. What if it's one? Well, I've seen it happen in San Diego. I live on the border just south here. I mean, I live in San Diego on the border, and they do register illegal immigrants to vote in our elections.

Speaking of the border. Me and they, Democrats. Okay. Speaking of the border. Sorry. Let me ask a question about the border because we didn't get to this...

We didn't get to this issue this week and this is your district is right on the border, as you say. Jeff Sessions announced this week, we are having a very new policy and it doesn't look to me very American and that is splitting up families at the border. If a family of Mexican people

are coming trying to get across the border, we're going to send the kid off in one direction and the mother to jail and put the baby in baby detention center. Splitting up families... He's wrong. That's not how you do it. So you're against that.

Yeah, let me tell you what you... Hey, great. We turned something. Okay. I'm going to get booed in one second. We should send the whole family back. Really, the whole family, if the parents are here illegally, you don't separate the family, you send the whole family back.

And if they want the kid to stay with a guardian or somebody here, like someone that's already here in this country, until they're 18 years old, they can do that. Why are they doing it? I would just put the family up. I would send everybody back and say, apply like everybody else in the world. Is it just to be as big a prick as we can to send the message? You try to get to this country.

We'll split your family up. Maybe. Maybe. I'm glad you admit that. Okay. Can I just ask, Congressman, what about refugees? What about people who actually are fleeing dangerous circumstances? Don't we have a tradition of opening our border to these people?

I've been working for five or six years to help. We've been working really hard to change. try to get people that are translators in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, name your place that have helped with the U.S. military, tons, and now their families have had to move to India, into Pakistan, believe it or not, to escape people in Afghanistan. We've been trying to get them refugee status in the U.S., and that's hard to do. You still have people that are not over here yet that are overseas who should be here. So that's something that we should do as Americans. But remember, this is not about Mexico.

It's about people from the entire world wanting to come to a better place and us not wanting them to bring the same problems that they're fleeing from with them here. They're escaping problems. They want a country ruled by law. That's what makes us safe. That's what they want here. Yes. And I've certainly met people from other countries who say,

I do not want the shit that I fled coming back here. I threw that veil off when I got here. Don't make me wear it here. Ethan Hawk, what are the key social differences you notice between the United States and Canada as someone who lives in both countries? Wow, what a great question. You know, one of the biggest differences

You should be a politician. No, no, no. Actually, you know, you come on a show like this and you wonder what you're going to get hit with. You know, and that's so interesting to me because I do, I have a place in Nova Scotia that we spend summer's at, and I have for a long time. One of the things that's amazing there is you're, you know, what you would call rural people, lobstermen, fishermen, fishermen, hunters, you know, guys who were. It's out in the sticks, this place.

Yeah, it's out in the sticks. And the people there are environmentalists, and they are extremely educated. in protecting their environment. Because it's their living, right? Yeah, and they make it really easy. Everyone, you have to recycle. They have a bag for compost. They have a bag for plastic.

They have a bag for... There's four different things, and you have to do it, or you get a fine. So you can go to a hunting shack at a, you know, a hoot-nanny at four in the morning. People are playing their smoking pot, they're drinking, and they're putting their recycling

where it belongs. Because they have to. And that's called good government. You know, they organ, they make it really easy to do the right thing. And that is really exciting. Okay, Robert. If you care about the environment. Well, don't get him started.

I'm a conservationist, not an environmentalist, but that's what people who hunt, like I do, all kinds of things. But a conservationist. I want the wild land to be beautiful. I want deer all over so I can shoot them and eat them and still have plenty more for everybody else, really. I mean, the environmental movement owns it. Great debt to the hunters and fishermen in this country, and they're the ones who should be leading the cause. And look, if you eat what you shoot,

that's no different than someone who goes to the supermarket. So that's a hypocrisy. In fact, mine doesn't have antibiotics in it, doesn't have any steroids in it? Right, right. We could do a better job of putting trash cans that bus stops in this country. We should could.

Yeah, like we don't make it easy to recycle in things. Why do you think that... Well, you can... No, go. No, why do you think that, you know, Teddy Roosevelt is a great mom? of a Republican leader in ecology and everything. Why isn't the Republican administration take that more seriously?

Like, how are they okay with what Scott Pruitt is doing? Because the history, the great history of the Republican Party is being a leader in protecting your right to hunt and making that more available. I just, I feel like that is a place where you could really leave. So the Department of the Interior, that a Navy seal heads, former congressman, Navy SEAL is now the head of the interior, and he is doing that.

I mean, he's a conservationist. There's groups like Safari Club International. They try to bring more elephants around. They try to bring more deer. They're introducing antelope back into San Diego next year. But what about... What about... How can you know about Scott Pruitt?

I don't know. What about Scott Pruitt? The head of the EPA... That's nothing like shaking. Congressman, do you think he should resign? No. Yes. Oh, come on.

How could you not think that? You think he should be in charge of protecting our environment? The stuff so over and sensationalized that all the expenses on everybody. I mean, this is, it's getting ridiculous. I'm just going to say, all I'm thinking is like, I don't agree with this guy on anything, but I see why they win elections. Because they're not fucking pussies.

They show up here and they go, yeah. They say what, yeah, and that's very attractive to people, and Democrats need to learn that skill. Could you tutor us a little bit? But, you know what, I'll just ask one more environmental question. I don't know if you saw it, but this week, The CDC says diseases born by ticks, fleas, and mosquitoes. We never used to have mosquitoes in California.

One of the great things about it. Now I see mosquitoes. Out of control. And these carry really horrible diseases that they don't have a clue how to fix. And you go camping or even in the years to come, just staying at home, this is going to be more prevalent. This is because of global warming. Because winter's is shorter. There's more environment that's friendly to these bugs for a longer time.

it's going to bite you in the ass, literally. The air is, you know, it's not something that rich people can cordon off. That's what I don't get about why Republicans, why the Koch brothers are not environmentalists. They can't have their own air. You can't get away from this shit. It's going to get everybody. You're saying, bottle of air.

Bottled air. It's responsible for more ticks and mosquito. Global, yes, I am. That's a, global warming is. I read the article in the New York Times that talks about this. They didn't mention global warming once. The word climate change wasn't used. The word temperature was used one time.

You must have been skipping paragraphs. No, I'm telling you, Bill. No, I promise you, it wasn't in there. They said people flying now from other places and the ease of access in travel and the world being flatter. That is what it has really led to this. Hold on, you're not pitching flat earth. No, he's...

You know, the one big elephant in this room that we're not talking about is money in politics. And that's what's on it. And I think... I told him we wouldn't get into that. Democrats are not immune. But Republicans really have led the way. Big money. I think the Republican Party has been much too corporatized,

but they're way too close to Wall Street. Way too close. We used to be the party of not free trade, of fair trade, of mere trade, what Trump's doing now, which I dig. I dig what he's doing on steel, on tariffs, on NAFTA. That's got to be a tough sentence to say. I dig what he's doing.

That's got to be tough. How that flows out. We've changed in the last few years. Are you for getting big money on politics, though? Like, it shouldn't just go back to corporations can't donate and just to be regular. And millionaires shouldn't be able to run against guys like me. Gotcha.

Yeah. Wait a minute. McCain used to remember, that was his big thing before we were. Yes. McCain-Feing. Yeah, that was he passed the one bill that they got it. All right. Thank you, everybody.

Thank you, Pat. Oh, thank you. Catch all new episodes of Real Time with Bill Maher every Friday night at 10 or watch them anytime on HBO On Demand. For more information, log on to HBO.com.